As Mega Man beamed back in, he rolled his eyes as he saw Wily approach. "Who's next?" he asked in resignation.
"I'd suggest you head after Needle Man next," Wily indicated. "His armor has a design flaw that causes focused light to pass right through it."
"Meaning Gemini Laser would bounce around inside him and cause a great deal of damage," Mega Man confirmed. "But...why suggest? Normally you say 'this one next, hurry!' What's different?"
"You didn't neutralize Shadow Man," Wily explained. "We have no idea of where he is. Wood Man, Air Man, and Crash Man will be keeping an eye on your progress in case you need assistance. Tom and I are going to be trying to track Shadow Man down in the mean time. You, however, need to neutralize the remaining Robot Masters so Shadow Man can't get any backup."
"Understood," Mega Man agreed, stepping back into the teleporter as soon as he was fully recharged.
While the Robot Masters kept track of Mega Man's progress, Wily went to talk with Tom. "Any progress on tracking down Shadow Man?"
"Afraid not," Tom replied. "I've been scanning for the unique energy/metal reaction that his gyroscope and cloaking tech are made from, as that's the repairs he'd need, but the only signal I'm getting is from here in the lab, and I know he can't be here."
"That's right," Albert agreed. "Nobody here would be repairing Shadow Man."
Vinyl let out an adorable sneeze.
"Are you alright, Vinyl?" Wily asked quickly, kneeling down beside her. "You aren't catching a cold, are you?" Before Vinyl could respond, Wily put his hand to her forehead. "That doesn't feel normal," he commented on her temperature. Raising his head, he called out, "Roll! I need blankets, warm packs, and chicken soup with tofu, stat!"
"Coming, Doctor!" Roll called back.
By the time Mega Man had reached Needle Man's chambers, Wily had Vinyl cocooned in a blanket, a soft heat pack on her head, a bowl of soup in front of her, and a put out expression on her face. "Make sure she eats her soup," Wily instructed Air Man. "I wish I could tend to her myself, but-"
"Understood, Doctor," Air Man replied. He spooned some soup up, holding the spoon out to Vinyl as she sat on the couch. "Say ah."
Grumpily, Vinyl allowed herself to be fed as she watched Mega Man fight Needle Man.
As Mega Man entered the chamber, Needle Man snorted at him. "About time, bub," he grunted. "I've been waiting forever."
"Sorry to keep you waiting," Mega Man replied. "But you just weren't that high a priority." He calmly shifted to Gemini Laser as he spoke.
Needle Man glowered at him. "Oh...you're gonna regret that choice of words, bub." Needles 'snicked' out of his busters.
"Doubtful," Mega Man stated as he fired. The laser impacted with Needle Man, knocking him back.
Needle Man's eyes turned red, and needles erupted all over his body. Lifting his arms, he let out a bestial roar, the needles all over him launching randomly as he charged for Mega Man.
Mega Man desperately evaded the charge, and stared in shock as the door crumbled under Needle Man's impact. Since he was unable to evade the endless barrage of needles, he knew he had to end the fight quickly.
Thankfully, three more laser shots finished Needle Man off, letting him acquire the weapon chip and the capsule of Energy Element.
While Wily and Light gave Mega Man a reverse acupuncture session - pulling the needles out to fix the damage - Vinyl managed to escape her caretakers in order to get back to the part of the lab she'd hidden and converted to her own purposes. Protoman had finished fixing himself, and loved the new glasses, especially as they interfaced with his new optics to provide him with alternative forms of vision, including sonar. Shadow Man's gyroscope was nearly finished, and would just need to be installed.
However, one other project was in the works, Vinyl's first attempt at building her own Robot Master. She knew this one would be, at best, a rough draft model. It was the most basic of basic, and looked like a mish mash of parts she'd scavenged out of the lab's recycling plant...which it unfortunately was. However, having installed Mega Man's variable weapon system in its core so it didn't have to worry about running out of weapon energy, she was certain it would prove a nice challenge.
All that it needed was a name...and an opportunity to reveal it without being thought to be involved.
As Mega Man went up against Spark Man, Vinyl realized she had the perfect opportunity...
Mega Man had been briefed on Spark Man. Given his design, his only weaknesses were Shadow Blades - which Mega Man hadn't been able to acquire - and his own weapon. However, Mega Man had studied the actual blueprints for a bit, and believed he had a plan that could work.
Spark Man leapt onto the scene. "I'm shocked to see you at long last, Mega Man!" he chortled. He aimed his spark arms forward. "Felt you needed a jolt after all this time-"
Spark Man's words were cut off as two Needles from Mega Man's Needle Cannon embedded themselves in the sides of his head. "What? Hey! I'm positive that's not fair!" He reached up with his spark arms to try and remove them.
Two Magnet Missiles connected the spark arms to the needles. With the circuit completed, Spark Man's own electrical nature overloaded him. "W-w-w-w-what an e-e-e-e-electrifying experience!" he called out before exploding.
Smirking, Mega Man collected the weapon chip and energy element capsule.
As Mega Man beamed back in to the lab, he was bowled over as a black, grey, yellow, white, and red robot with a skull face trampled him, snatching the Energy Element capsule from him. "Thank you very much!" the robot stated politely. "I knew you were polite, but I never imagined you were so generous."
Mega Man looked up in time to see the robot enter the teleporter with all eight capsules. "Wait!"
The robot smiled at him. "Know that Doc Robot thanks you for making his job so much easier!" the robot called out before beaming out.
As the lab went into an uproar, Vinyl feigned snoring to maintain an appearance of innocence. However, one person wasn't entirely fooled...